Stop Making Sense: Difference between revisions

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 The band raised the budget of $1.2 million themselves. The four core members of Talking Heads are joined by the backing singers [[Lynn Mabry]] and [[Ednah Holt]], the guitarist [[Alex Weir]], the keyboardist [[Bernie Worrell]] and the percussionist [[Steve Scales]]. ''Stop Making Sense'' is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest concert films of all time. The film is a pioneering example of the use of early digital audio techniques. In 2021, it was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
+== Background and Production ==
+Much of the show that would becomes ''Stop Making Sense'' originated as part of the 1983 tour. Continuing the trend the band started in 1980, Talking Heads' live performances would featured a number of collaborative musicians in an expanded lineup.
+Putting together the movie and the tour were both stressful endeavors for the band in many ways. David has talked about how he became ''"kind of obsessive about getting that show up and running,"''  and that he might ''"not have been the most pleasant person to deal with at that point."''<ref>Cooper, Anderson. “David Byrne on Talking Heads and Following His Own Beat.” ''Www.cbsnews.com'', 5 Mar. 2023, www.cbsnews.com/news/david-byrne-60-minutes-2023-03-05/.</ref>
 ==Plot==
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 == 2023 Restoration ==
-As part of the deal with the film's original distributor, Cinecom, the ownership of the rights to ''Stop Making Sense'' reverted back to Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison shortly before the 40th anniversary of its original release. Hoping to commemorate the occasion, the group sought out potential companies to partner with on a re-release, eventually settling on [[A24]]. A24 announced they had obtained the distribution rights in March 2023, and revealed plans to release a 4k restoration in theaters the following September.
+''Main Article: [[Stop Making Sense 2023 Restoration]]''
-[[James Mockoski]], a restoration supervisor who primarily worked with Zoetrope studios, was called in by A24. Although seeking out as much of the original materials as possible for the restoration, it was soon reveled that the original [[Negative (photography)|negative]] for the film was missing. For the 1999 re-release of the film, had used scans made from a "copy of a copy" of the film that Demme had donated to the University of Michigan.<ref name=":0">Baine, Wallace. “UCSC Alum’s Detective Work Revives Classic Talking Heads Concert Film.” ''Lookout Santa Cruz'', 11 July 2024, lookout.co/ucsc-alums-detective-work-revives-classic-talking-heads-concert-film/. Accessed 18 July 2024.</ref> Mockoski remarked in a Rolling Stone write up of the restoration that "I wanted to know what they were working with, and she told me that the Talking Heads’ manager [Tomas Cookman] had got everything in from the previous distributor. They sent me a list, and there were almost no film elements included. There might have been, like, one screening print, and that was it. I asked, ‘So, where’s the negative?’ And the answer was, ‘Well, it should all be there.’ Which was … not quite the case. Not at all.”<ref>Fear, David. “Big Suits, Lost Tapes, and Dancing Heads: Inside A24’S Incredible “Stop Making Sense” Restoration.” ''Rolling Stone'', 27 Sept. 2023, www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/stop-making-sense-talking-heads-restoration-david-byrne-a24-40th-anniversary-1234828312/.</ref>
-After an extensive search, the original negative for the film was found in an [[Wikipedia:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] film vault, despite MGM not having been involved in the making of the film. The story goes that Mockoski, after exhausting all other options, and even beginning some restoration work on the "copy of a copy" film, called a contact he knew at the vault. Although the vault doubted they had the film in the collection, they still agreed to check. After about 10 minutes, Mockoski recieved a text message from the vault with a photo of the original negative and the message "It’s just been sitting here for 30 years. It’s never been checked out."<ref name=":0" />
+As part of the deal with the film's original distributor, Cinecom, the ownership of the rights to ''Stop Making Sense'' reverted back to Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison shortly before the 40th anniversary of its original release. Hoping to commemorate the occasion, the group sought out potential companies to partner with on a re-release, eventually settling on [[A24]].
-Similarly, Eric Thorgren and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison planned to create new [[Dolby Atmos]] sound mixes, initially using materials from the previous distributor and [[Rhino Entertainment|Rhino Records]]. However, they ran into difficulty when they discovered they did not have the original audience tracks: the original audio was stored in the library of [[Wikipedia:Todd-AO|Todd-AO]], which had since gone out of business and its building demolished. Eventually, it was discovered that Todd-AO's collection was claimed by [[Wikipedia:Sony|Sony]], who transported it to a warehouse in Kansas, where the original audio tracks were found in time to be included in the restoration. Using these original tracks, as well as the post-production overdubs originally overseen by Demme to fix mistakes in the film's recording, Thorgren and Harrison painstakingly remastered the film's sound.
+After initial fears of being unable to find an original negative of the film to remaster, restorationist James Mockoski discovered the film in an [[wikipedia:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] vault. <ref>Fear, David. “Big Suits, Lost Tapes, and Dancing Heads: Inside A24’S Incredible “Stop Making Sense” Restoration.” ''Rolling Stone'', 27 Sept. 2023, www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/stop-making-sense-talking-heads-restoration-david-byrne-a24-40th-anniversary-1234828312/.</ref><ref name=":02">Baine, Wallace. “UCSC Alum’s Detective Work Revives Classic Talking Heads Concert Film.” ''Lookout Santa Cruz'', 11 July 2024, lookout.co/ucsc-alums-detective-work-revives-classic-talking-heads-concert-film/. Accessed 18 July 2024.</ref> Similarly, [[Eric Thorgren]] and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison planned to create new [[Dolby Atmos]] sound mixes. The original audio was stored in the library of [[Wikipedia:Todd-AO|Todd-AO]], which had since gone out of business and its building demolished. Eventually, it was discovered that Todd-AO's collection was claimed by [[Wikipedia:Sony|Sony]], who transported it to a warehouse in Kansas.
 The studio premiered the new restoration on September 11, 2023, in 4K on [[Wikipedia:IMAX|IMAX]] at the [[2023 Toronto International Film Festival]], followed by a Q&A hosted by [[Spike Lee]] with Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz and Harrison in attendance, reuniting the group for the first time since their induction into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 2002.